Question about moving to PRK

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Using Nashville as a prototypical Southern city and LA as SoCal, we get:

Cost of Living Indexes Natl. average Nashville Los Angeles-Long Beach

Overall
100=national average (lower=better) 100.0 95.3 128.5
Housing
comprises 31% of overall COL 100.0 93.9 164.3
Food and groceries
comprises 16% of overall COL 100.0 94.2 116.1
Transportation
comprises 10% of overall COL 100.0 97.3 117.2
Utilities
comprises 8% of overall COL 100.0 94.8 121.2
Health
comprises 5% of overall COL 100.0 90.0 117.2
Miscellaneous
comprises 30% of overall COL 100.0 97.4 111.1

Housing Natl. average Nashville Los Angeles-Long Beach
House purchase cost
median home value - Q3/00 $128,500 $116,500 $200,600
Home apreciation
12 months ending Q3/00 7.2% 7.3% 8.6%
Property tax rate
tax rate per $1000 valuation $15.56 $8.80 $11.00

Other Costs Natl. average Nashville Los Angeles-Long Beach
Sales tax rate
total local, county, and state sales taxes 5.75% 8.3% 8.3%
Income tax rate
total for $50,000 income 4.60% 0.0% 6.0%
Auto insurance
annual insurance for mis-size sedan $825 $920 $1,450

Economy Natl. average Nashville Los Angeles-Long Beach
Unemployment Rate
October, 2000 4.0% 2.3% 5.3%
Recent job growth
most recent 12 months 1.30% 4.7% 3.8%
Future job growth
projected growth to 2010 15.1% 20.7% 6.2%
Municipal Bond Rating
source - Standard and Poors AA- AA AA
 
It lists the median house price in Long Beach as $206,000

Last I checked, the median house price for houses for sale in LA County was $390,000. The inland Empire is $256,801. Don't even ask about Orange County, Ventura County, or anywhere elese. So sure you can live cheap way out in the boonies of the inland empire and then spend 3 hours a day commuting. (Source)
 
and those housing costs are for small small homes.


My relatives are selling their house in Hemet(aka hell hole in San Bernadino country*I think*) for something like 300 K. It's a small single story house.


My uncle has to commute over an hour every day. Which means major miles on your car plus the stress of free way driving every day.


I live in LA right now, and rent prices are climbing through the roof. I'm paying 900 a month for a studio in a crappy part of Los Angeles(south central)
 
Just from knowledge of local housing market, average 1800 square foot 40 year old house on a 50x100 house can range from 450K to 700k without any real drama. Difference is what neighborhood in the same city - Redondo Beach. Plenty of houses well over 1 Million - new to newer, 2800+ square feet, max lot size 50 x 150. Studios range from 800 to 1100 for something real nice, 1 bedroom $1000 to $1800 (real nice, dishwasher, newer, maybe ocean view). Gas ( the very cheapest right now) $2.159/gal. Housing prices doubled in the last 5 years. Move to Manhattan Beach and add 30% to 50% to the house and rental prices.
 
My relatives are selling their house in Hemet(aka hell hole in San Bernadino country*I think*) for something like 300 K. It's a small single story house.
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Hemet is south of Lake Perris on the 215, IIRC. Riverside County.

My mom's house just appraised for $285,000 last year. 1825 square feet single story on .65 acre, zoned for horses. Commute to any job worth mentioning is 30 minutes plus, any direction. My dad used to commute from there to Long Beach airport daily. 1.5 hours, one way, and this was in 1995. Traffic is much worse now.

Frankly, I will avoid California for the rest of my life, if for no other reason than the cost of living.
 
A friend of mine just sold his 1800 square foot duplex 3 miles from the beach for $500K. It doesn't matter what they pay you if it's not enough to afford to buy in here. Of course this close to the beach I don't have air conditioning costs.
 
You guys are talking about particularly expensive areas. That same 5K lot with a 1600 Sq Ft home is more like $240K - $280K in many areas of north Orange County. Particular cities can have wild highs and lows in the same town (like <$200K to $800K+, say in Whittier).

Anyway, why be in Southern California? For the weather dummy. You didn't know you had seasonal affective disorder until you lived in 250+ days of annual sunshine. There's probably other good reasons, like what I do for a living or if I ever pay off my house (as inflated as it is) I can retire somewhere else in much greater comfort.
 
Thanks to everyone for the info! I'm in the process of proving to my friend that the $30K annual raise just isn't worth it.

Cost of living issues aside, I personally wouldn't consider moving to a state that limits my RKBA to the extent that California does. Everybody has different priorities however, and for my friend, the bigger issue is housing costs.

He's on assignment in the Camarillo/Oxnard area right now and tells me he's seeing "starter" houses in the $400K range...

Y'all can keep California, ya hear?
 
I live in SoCal and have most of my life. You might want to pause and think why everthing is so expensive. Demand. People from all over the world want to live here. Yes the weather is nice, but that is not the main reason. There are but a few places in the world where you can truly compete with the best. LA is one of those few places. I've spent a lot of time in Nashville. Great town. Nice people. But unless you are in country music you will not reach the top of your field unless you move.

I'm a lawyer. I know several Nashville lawyers. They have a great life, but they will never ever get the chance to work on the stuff I see. Big bucks cases and deals. Problems where the stakes are really big. The same is true in many other fields.

I'd never recommend someone move to LA or anywhere just for a raise. The question I'd ask is what are the opportunities? LA is not cozy or easy, but your future is unlimited here.

-NL
 
I respectfully disagree (and couldn't disagree more). In my opinion, the type of person to whom you refer identifies far too strongly with their job, position, title, social status, material positions, and money. None of those things hold much importance, especially to those who truly value freedom.

I bet there'd be quite an opportunity to compete with some of the best for the last bottle of water in hell, but I wouldn't consider myself lucky to be involved in the competition for it.

Better to die poor and free than to live a comfortable life as a slave.
 
The question I'd ask is what are the opportunities? LA is not cozy or easy, but your future is unlimited here.
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Please let an oldtimer offer this, money is not always the answer, quality of
life is. If I had it to do over I would have worked less and played more.;)

As an added note I live on a very fixed income here in Texas and you could
give me $30k per year for doing nothing other then living in CA and I would
refuse.
 
I'm a lawyer. I know several Nashville lawyers. They have a great life, but they will never ever get the chance to work on the stuff I see. Big bucks cases and deals. Problems where the stakes are really big. The same is true in many other fields.
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Why do some of the wealthiest lawyers going hail from the South, Mississippi in particular? Alabama has the some of, if not the best paid, jurists in the country, though considering the conditions in the state, that should speak volumes about the necessity of lawyers for the betterment of a society.
 
He's on assignment in the Camarillo/Oxnard area right now and tells me he's seeing "starter" houses in the $400K range...
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That area suffers from several factors, not the least of which is being located between L.A. and Santa Barbara.


Don't forget they have the highest cost of gasoline anywhere in the country. That counts when you have a commute.


Your buddy had better do his homework and do the math. $30k might turn out to be a pay CUT.


BTW, someone mentioned Hemet to Long Beach in 1.5 hours. I use to live in Hemet. 1.5 hours to Long Beach, even in 95, would be a GOOD day. All it takes is one idiot on the 91 through Santa Ana Canyon and that 1.5 hours becomes 3 or 4.

Oh, and let any drop of rain fall anywhere and traffic goes into....

Well, I was going to say into the toilet, but it STARTS there and goes down!
 
He's on assignment in the Camarillo/Oxnard area right now and tells me he's seeing "starter" houses in the $400K range...
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Yep (Sawdust leans over and spits in the dirt).

I live slightly SE of where your friend is working, and that 30K *is* a pay cut.

The value of my house has just about *tripled* since I bought it in '98. Now, it was a fixer, and I've completely restored it, but I think that you get my drift.

400k wouldn't even get you a condo in Santa Barbara, where I grew up. :cuss:

If'n he was my friend, I'd wave him off.

Having said all of that, if he or you want to ask any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

Sawdust
 
I live on a very fixed income here in Texas and you could give me $30k per year for doing nothing other then living in CA and I would
refuse.
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Well, I've spent a lot of time in Texas and you could offer me $30k for nothing other then never having to go to Texas again and I would accept! ;)

I respectfully disagree (and couldn't disagree more). In my opinion, the type of person to whom you refer identifies far too strongly with their job, position, title, social status, material positions, and money. None of those things hold much importance, especially to those who truly value freedom.
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Please let an oldtimer offer this, money is not always the answer, quality of life is. If I had it to do over I would have worked less and played more.
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Well to each his own. IMHO, a life that is just easy is just a waste. I'm not too interested in just having a low-stress, easy life. I'm more concerned with what I can contribute to my faith, my family, my country and my community. I want a life that contributes, not one that just "gets by." Such a life requires dedication, sacrifice and hard work. As it happens that type of life is also, for me, very satisfying. The thought you advance, that desire for success automatically equates to shallow values, is one I hear from Western Europeans a lot. But it is not true. Success and values are not mutually exclusive. The idea that they are is, I think, one reason Western Europe is in decline.

-NL
 
Being a forty-seven year Southern California native I agree that what Quartus stated is not only right, it's damned right. We fled that Hellhole in '94 and haven't looked back since.
 
BTW, folks, those online cost of living calculators are not very reliable, IME. I've been all over this country for the last few years working for a consulting company, and looking into local costs became a way of life.


DON'T make any permanent location change decisions based on what you find online!

It's a good starting point. That's all.
 
I want a life that contributes, not one that just "gets by." Such a life requires dedication, sacrifice and hard work. As it happens that type of life is also, for me, very satisfying. The thought you advance, that desire for success automatically equates to shallow values,
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Excellent your in a good place, please stay.
 
It is awefully hard to stick to the High Road when so many of you continue to verbally abuse my state. For those of you who have lived here and moved and enjoy your new life, I accept that and your opinions are valid. For those of you who have never been here, shut your mouth. You have no right or business commenting on this subject. I am tired of it.

If we are ever to turn this state around, we need good people to move back into this state. I encourage your friend to move out here. We need another vote. If in a few years he realizes he has made a mistake, by all means move.

I like where I am at. I have a CCW. How many of you non PRK residents can say that? I hope a lot, but I suspect that not as many of you high and mighty California haters would like. I own nearly 30 firearms. I drive five minutes from my house and shoot for free. I hunt deer, pigs, birds, coyotes, squirrels. I live in a nice small community where people still know right from wrong just as much as any other state in this country.

Is my state perfect. HELL NO! Does it need improvement. YES IT DOES. However, we will never improve until we get enough votes to change things around here. We will not do that with good people staying away.

So if you have lived here and don't think it is worth moving here, I respect your opinions when you state the reasons why. For those of you who don't know a damn thing about this state except from what you have read from the Internet, do me a favor, keep your baseless opinions to yourselves. And pray that my worthless senators and representatives don't pass through a new AWB on you. If they do, I can't help you because I don't have enough good people to vote them out of office.
 
It is awefully hard to stick to the High Road when so many of you continue to verbally abuse my state. For those of you who have lived here and moved and enjoy your new life, I accept that and your opinions are valid. For those of you who have never been here, shut your mouth. You have no right or business commenting on this subject. I am tired of it.
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When did posting facts like high taxes, housing, and COL, along with commute times and transportation related costs, constitute abuse?

Res Ipsa Loquitur :rolleyes:
 
There are lots of nice things about living in California. There's a reason why we have 35,000,000 people here, and why this one state is the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world. But there are absolutely tradeoffs, too. The cost of living is stratospheric. Housing. You have to have a car, along with expensive insurance and expensive gas. Long commutes.

Let's put it this way... as much as I absolutely abhor the politics out here, I'm not going anywhere very soon. I have a very good job and a nice big stack of equity in my condo. I'm buying guns like crazy, because I fully expect there to be a de facto ban of one sort or another in place within 5 years or so. The day they tell me I have to turn 'em in, I'll leave (if I'm still here at that point).

Oh, and El Rojo... constantly pointing out that you have a CCW is meaningless. It's disingenuous at best to someone who doesn't know about our crooked system. Tell them where you live and how far away it is from the population centers, and tell them what their chances of getting a CCW in those population centers is. I'm sure you're absolutely happy where you are, but most people moving in to CA are going to move to LA, San Diego, San Francisco, etc. That's where the people are, and that's where the work is.
 
Last night the wife and I went on a date night. We decided to drive down the coast to Laguna and watch the sun slowly set over the Pacific. We had dinner at a world class sidewalk cafe. We look through the art galleries and shops. As we drove home to our house a block from the beach we could see the sweep of lights up and down the coast.

I forget. Why is it I have a crummy quality of life?

-NL
 
One added thought:

In looking over the replys I see that my main point got lost. Let me put it a different way. Deciding on a job just based on whether you net out better financially in the short run is a bad idea. You need to look at the job from the point of view of your career, not just the job itself. Some places offer much more opportunity than others. I think, in general, you find more chances for success here in the LA area than in other places.

-NL
 
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